Casefile True Crime - Case 48: Suzy Lamplugh

Episode Date: March 5, 2017

At midday on July 28 1986, 25-year-old British real estate agent Suzy Lamplugh left work to attend an appointment. The only clue as to where she was headed was a note scrawled in her diary that read: “12:45 Mr Kipper – 37 Shorrolds Road”... --- Researched and written by Anna Priestland. For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-48-suzy-lamplugh

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In 1986 London was on the up. It had seen steady recovery from the recession of the early 80s and from the string of crises that played the British economy for most of the 70s. Homegrown car manufacturing was seeing a resurgence with a record number of new cars sold in Britain. There was also a shopping centre boom with one centre built that year being the largest in Europe. The economy was growing despite the stock market crash that would come the following year, 87. Two major newspapers were launched. Today, End of the Independent. The hunger for thrilling front page stories was high. The real estate market was strong.

The house market boom occurred during this period and followed the deregulation of the mortgage market. The equal pay and sex discrimination legislation brought about in the 70s helped push more women into the workforce. And progressive London saw many industries encourage female workers into careers as opposed to just jobs. With more women having greater access to mortgages, the rise in female real estate agents also grew. Young professional women understanding the needs of other professional women buyers was important. 25-year-old Susie Lamploo launched herself into the career of a South West London real estate agent in 1985. Born on the 3rd of May 1961, Susie Lamploo was the second eldest in a family of one boy and three girls. Her parents Paul and Diana, originally from affluent Cheltenham, bought them up to be a close-knit family.

Paul was a solicitor and Diana previously the co-owner of a nationwide health and fitness organisation called Slimtastix, which ran classes combining exercise with healthy eating, stress control and life skills. Susie Lamploo was headstrong and independent, with a zest for life often described as insatiable. She had a hectic social life surrounded by a tight-knit group of friends, her mother affectionately referred to as the Putney set. All well-heeled young professional women who love socialising in the wine bars of Putney. Putney is a suburb of South West London and is where Susie lived in a flat on her own. Susie was the one in the family who kept everyone in check. She was the one who looked after them all, the one they relied on. On the 27th of July 1986, Diana caught up with Susie as they were having an early celebration for Diana's 50th birthday.

They chatted about a theatre show Diana had seen and caught up on what Susie had been up to. Susie had just been windsurfing and she spoke about how exciting it was. Diana questioned whether Susie was over all these different adventures and Susie said, No more, life is for Libby. Susie had worked at Sturgis and Sons Real Estate on Fulham Road for just over a year. Upmarket Fulham is part of the inner city borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in South West London. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, pocketed between Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. Susie lived in her own flat in Putney just south of the river, a seven-minute drive or 25-minute stroll across the Putney Bridge.

Agents at Sturgis and Sons filled their days with house showings. Most of the day was spent ferrying would-be buyers from house to house. 1986 being a time when prospective buyers would either phone the office landline or drop into the storefront to make appointments face-to-face. Diaries were all handwritten. On the 28th of July 1986, 25-year-old Susie Lampleau went to work like every other day. She left her flat that morning wearing a peach-coloured blouse, grey skirt, black jacket and black shoes. Her shoulder-length blonde hair had just been dyed only days before.

It was summer in London and Susie liked the change from her usual dark brown hair. The office at Sturgis and Sons real estate was busy and everyone was rushing about their day. Just after 12.30pm, Susie left the office with her purse which contained 15 pounds, her credit cards and her car keys. She left her handbag behind. She drove her work car, a white Ford Fiesta, to an appointment on Sherolds Road in Fulham. Her diary entry read, 12.45, Mr Kipper, 37 Sherolds Road, OS. OS meaning meet outside the property. She was seen waiting outside the three-story white Victorian terrace just after 12.45.

At 1pm, the next-door neighbour at number 35 Sherolds Road looked out his window and saw Susie greet a good-looking, well-dressed man with swept-back dark hair, dressed in a suit and tie. He was between 5'6 and 5'9 and around 25 to 30 years of age. Mr Kipper. Minutes later, a second witness saw Susie and Mr Kipper walking away from the house together. Mr Kipper was carrying a bottle of champagne with a large ribbon on it. Both of these witnesses held with artist composites of Mr Kipper,

which turned out to very closely resemble each other. Other witnesses believed they saw them lying on the grass in nearby Bishop's Park with what looked like a bottle of champagne. A local shopkeeper recalled that morning he had served a man who asked for the most expensive bottle of champagne he had. He left with an expensive bottle without waiting for the change. Another witness confirmed seeing Susie and a man outside another property that was for sale on Stephenidge Road, Fulham, about one and a half miles away from the first property on Sherolds Road.

There was a possibility that Susie had gone to the second property for his showing with Mr Kipper as well. Later, witnesses saw Susie arguing with a man in a black or dark coloured BMW, also on Stephenidge Road. A van driver told detectives he had to swerve and hit the curb to avoid a collision when a white Ford Fiesta came flying towards him. He saw a striking blonde at the wheel arguing with a man in a suit in the passenger seat. A jogger leaving Bishop's Park around 1.50pm told police that a dark car, either a BMW or Mercedes, drove towards him sounding the horn continuously. The blonde woman in the car who stared at him as they passed appeared to be fighting with a male companion.

By late afternoon, when Susie hadn't returned to the office, her workmates started to wonder where she was. It wasn't like Susie to take long lunch breaks or take time off. She would always let someone know where she was. They checked the diary and saw the entry Susie had made for the appointment with Mr Kipper. He was not known to anyone at the agency, and there was no one with that name in their records. There was no contact phone number for him either. Susie's manager called Susie's mother and said, Do you have any idea where your daughter might be, Mrs Lamplew?

We wondered whether she could have called into home for lunch. I don't want to worry you, Mrs Lamplew, but Susanna left to show a house to a client just before lunch, and she has not returned. We just wanted to check anywhere we could. Diana recalled that it was so unlike Susie, who usually stuck to the rules and regulations. Something must have gone wrong. Susie's brother Richard received a call from their father Paul, who told him Susie hadn't returned to work after showing someone a house. Everyone started to get very worried.

At 6.45pm, her manager reported Susie's disappearance to the police. With the remaining hours of daylight, police retraced Susie's steps and spoke to her work colleagues. By the time night fell, they stepped up the search, and upgraded Susie's disappearance from a normal missing persons inquiry to a higher risk incident. That night, Mick Jones of the Metropolitan Police went with other officers to Susie's flat in Putney and forced their way inside. There was nothing in the flat to explain her disappearance. No sign of any struggle or attack.

Nothing out of place or unusual. On their way back to Fulham Police Station, they received news that other police officers coming the area had found Susie's white Ford Fiesta. It was found at 10.01pm, parked near the property for sale in Stephenage Road, the second property she was seen outside of, one and a half miles away from the appointment marked in her diary. It looked like her car had been abandoned. It was parked half over a garage driveway.

It was unlocked, the handbrake was off, and the positioning of the seat suggested someone other than Susie had been driving. Susie's purse still containing the 15 pounds was in the glove compartment. Her keys were missing. Her straw hat was still sitting on the dashboard. Police acknowledged that they were likely dealing with a sinister situation. Extra officers were drafted in and started a meticulous search of the surrounding area. Trained search dogs were also called in.

Divers searched the Thames River near Stephenage Road, where her Ford Fiesta was found abandoned, and a police helicopter also covered the surrounding areas. Scotland Yard, which is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, released an artist's impression of Mr Kipper. Susie's parents joined the search and went into overdrive trying to find their daughter. Diana said, My initial reaction of frozen shock gave way to a flood of adrenaline which shot me into overdrive.

We must find her. Physically all that energy must be directed into action. My husband and I went down to the river where her car had been abandoned. We called. We shouted. We encouraged our dogs to search for her. We must have been disturbing the neighbourhood, but more than that, as the police who were there made clear,

we were getting in the way. Initially it was thought Susie had been lured to an empty property by a stranger posing as a client, but it wasn't long before they realised it was likely Susie was stalked, that this was a planned kidnapping and she may have even known the assailant. The accounts of the champagne seemed to fit this idea. Deborah Orr of The Independent newspaper in London described it as follows, It appears to be beyond the doubt that she was pinpointed by a stalker who evolved the plan to ensnare her by using the vulnerability which her working life necessarily exposed.

The investigators moved quickly to interview friends, family and work colleagues. They wanted to paint a picture of Susie's habits and social life. What was clear is that Susie had a close family and a very tight group of friends. Superintendent Carter went public very early on and gained the help of the media. The public reaction to Susie's disappearance seemed unprecedented at the time. People saw themselves in Susie's shoes or her family's shoes. A young woman going about her day at work had mysteriously disappeared. It could happen to anyone.

Metro police thought if they went public as quickly as possible while people's memories were still fresh, they would have the best chance of finding Susie. In the days where there was no CCTV and no mobile phone records or tower pinging, by witness accounts and the media were the number one tool used in investigations such as this. The police felt that something was seriously wrong, but what they were yet to realise was that Susie's disappearance would become one of the largest investigations in British criminal history. The following day, the 29th of July, there was an article in the London Evening Standard with the headline, Kidnap Fears for a State Agent's Girl.

Scotland Yard reported there were grave concerns for Susie's safety. Police released the information that a black or dark coloured BMW could be involved. Theories started to fly about the name Mr Kipper, with police investigating possible links to the Dutch name Kuiper. Despite police investigations, nobody of this name was found to be connected. Police records came up with nothing. An incident room was set up at Fulham Police Station and more than 100 police were involved in the initial search. Detective Superintendent Nick Carter said, The longer time goes by, the more fearful I become of finding her alive,

because such behaviour, two nights away from home without contacting a soul, is totally out of character. She's intelligent and the level-headed. She has possibly been abducted. Police asked other local estate agents to compile lists of empty places in case the man had obtained keys to other properties. At the time of Susie's disappearance, police didn't work on computer systems. Everything was written down on cards. These cards were a little bigger than a standard envelope and were filed in long drawers, or sometimes sat on round spinning holders to make flicking through the mesia. Susie's cards started to fill boxes as the amount of information, even in the early part of the investigation, surpassed 26,000 cards. One thing which confused the public at the time was that Susie was described as blunt,

but the photos of Susie released by the police showed her with dark brown hair. This was because Susie had recently dyed her hair. In the weeks that followed, shops across London started to sell out of personal alarms. A lot of people, mostly young women, felt they could be next. The following Wednesday, the 30th of July, was Diana's 50th birthday and the family home in Mort Lake was crawling with journalists. Diana welcomed the media, hoping it would help find Susie. Susie's parents made an emotional appeal to her kidnapper to let Susie go. They said they were convinced that their daughter was still alive,

but were terrified she was tied up in a place where she couldn't get out. Her father, Paul, said, I don't believe she's been murdered, I can't explain it, but we feel very strongly that she is still alive and I believe with everybody's help we can find her. The next day, Diana and Paul appeared twice on television, on BBC's Breakfast Time, as well as Good Morning Britain. Diana told her host, I feel she's shut up somewhere, that she's being held against her will. I feel that because she hasn't contacted us.

She's a very strong, very fit lady. She should be able to cope with most situations. As the media interest grew, the family started receiving piles of letters. Some were from friends who were praying for them. It seems so particularly unjust, a thing to happen to a family which has always shown care and love for others, especially in their distress. Others were from strangers who had met Susie. Susie bought my car off me and she struck my husband and I as a smashing girl.

And others were harder to decipher, but Diana and Paul felt they needed to read every single one, just in case it helped them find Susie. Diana showed a journalist the piles of letters and said, it's something everyone can relate to, and a lot of them said they felt almost as if it had happened to them. But after one week had passed, Diana admitted on television that she was beginning to realise that her daughter might be dead.

Quote, I can face up to the fact that she has died, but I cannot face up to what has happened in between. That's too much. Diana revealed that Susie suffered from claustrophobia. She had once panicked in a cable car. They knew she would have been terrified to be shut in somewhere. They found it easier to believe she was dead than imagine her suffering.

Despite a police reconstruction and extensive media coverage during the early part of the investigation, no information had moved them any further to determining what had happened to Susie. After returning to work at a fish shop in Hertfordshire, Susie's brother Richard recalled that after the fish came in, they would wash the floor of the shop and put newspaper down. As he laid out the newspaper, he noticed a photo of Susie. It was then that it hit home for him. He may never see his sister again.

By the beginning of August, the police had over 700 calls from the public with possible information regarding Susie's disappearance. They also had 100 calls from people claiming to have seen Susie on the day she vanished, or just after. Each lead proved to eventually be a dead end. However, witness accounts did seem to point towards the fact that Susie may have known Mr Kipper. Family and friends said Susie had no enemies, and they did not know of anyone who could be capable of abducting her.

But they did talk about a new man Susie had met not long before she disappeared. Susie had been talking about a new man she had met who came from Bristol, or at least had a connection to Bristol, a city one and a half hours west of London. Susie said the man often had to leave dates early or abruptly, but she didn't know why. She openly asked friends if they thought he had a wife or was attached to someone else, because he was forever making calls to Bristol. During a conversation with her mother, Susie said she wasn't going to be fooled around with. The next time Susie mentioned the man from Bristol to her mother,

she said he had taken her motor racing, but she had become a bit scared of him. She was receiving a lot of phone calls at work. She mentioned the same thing to friends and other family members. Diana asked if she needed help, but Susie said she would handle it. She planned to have lunch with him and tell him it was over. Paul and Diana channeled their frustrations into a charity in Susie's name, the Susie Lamplew Trust, launched on the 4th of December 1986, just a few months after she went missing.

The initial aim was to raise money for self-awareness courses for people at work. But over the years it has extended to enabling people from all walks of life to live life fully, but safely. The charity was started from the Lamplew's house in South West London, in an office in the garden. They wanted to ensure this wouldn't happen to anyone else. They believed the lack of personal safety within working hours was a huge contributing factor in Susie's disappearance. They wanted to establish ways of educating people to improve their personal safety without curtailing their freedom and liberties.

Their focus was to set up laws around safety for lone workers, as well as educate workplaces and individuals. They also wanted better education and legislation around stalking. Diana and Paul threw themselves into the charity as a way of honouring their daughter and helping others. They felt helpless as police continued to investigate without getting anywhere. The family held a memorial service for Susie. Her brother Richard said it was at this point he knew for sure she wasn't coming back. He admitted to himself for the first time that Susie had been murdered.

The family focused on moving forward and keeping the Susie Lamplew Trust going. Diana worked tirelessly on numerous committees and led campaigns for changes in the law, the most successful of which included measures to combat harassment and stalking, the registration of sex offenders, and the registration of minicabs in the UK. The charity was the driving force behind the act passed in England to ensure registration for all private hire vehicles. A popular taxi service called Minicabs were at the time unregulated and drivers didn't have to be registered in any way.

They saw the risk to people's safety and were successful in getting an act passed to change this. Diana became the public face of the Trust as she travelled relentlessly up and down the country, giving talks and organising conferences and seminars for every kind of organisation. As one year passed, there was no suspect, no motive, no evidence, and still no trace of Susie. By October 1987 the case officially tapered down. The police vowed it would not be closed, but they had exhausted all leads and would have to wait for something new to show itself. Money and resources were needed in other areas of policing in London.

There was an active provisional IRA campaign happening in London at the time with various bombings and threats occurring throughout the city, as well as a number of other high profile crimes. Large scale bank robberies, drug busts, a mass shooting, a large underground fire killing 31 people, and the great storm of 1987 which killed 23 people in England and France. The investigation into Susie's disappearance halted and so did the media attention. On the 8th of October 1987, one year and two months after Susie went missing, 29 year old Shirley Banks disappeared from a multi-story shopping centre car park in Central Bristol,

a major city 240 kilometres west of London. She had spent the evening doing some late night shopping. Some time after 7.40pm when she last used her credit card to buy a dress at Topshop, she and her orange mini club and vehicle disappeared. Shirley was supposed to meet her new husband Richard for a drink after shopping, but never showed up. They had been married for only four weeks. When the police launched the investigation into Shirley Banks disappearance the next morning,

it was not linked in any way to Susie Lampleau. Bristol was 240 kilometres away and the mystery man with ties to Bristol, Susie's friends and family said she was seeing, wasn't at the forefront of the investigators' minds. Also, police weren't immediately sure as Shirley had met with foul play. The morning after she went missing, her workplace received a call around 9am, supposedly from Shirley herself, saying she wouldn't be in. She'd been up all night with an upset stomach. Shirley was not seen or heard from again and although her workplace was sure it was her who made the call,

police couldn't prove it one way or the other at the time. Bristol police received another report that the night before Shirley Banks disappeared, a woman had been approached by a man with a gun while getting into her car in Bristol. She had fought him off and managed to drive away, but suddenly Shirley's disappearance 24 hours later was starting to look very sinister. In the nearby town of Lemington Spa, three weeks after Shirley Banks disappeared, a man wearing a motorcycle helmet walked into a dress shop and attempted to attack two female workers with a knife. They managed to chase him out and scream for help.

Police arrived and with the help of two locals, they found a bag stashed in the street containing the helmet and a knife. The knife had blood on it and the police guessed the attacker may have injured himself while on the run. A short distance away, they noticed the man walking calmly and casually. They stopped him and asked to see his hands. One was cut and bleeding. He was arrested and taken to the local police station. His name was John Canaan. He had a set of keys in his possession that were traced back to his black BMW parked close to the dress shop.

While Canaan was under arrest, the police searched his house. They lifted prints and went through all of his possessions. In a briefcase, they found a car tax registration sticker, which they traced to the vehicle of Shirley Banks. They also found an empty bag from the local Topshop store in the back of Canaan's BMW. Topshop was the store that Shirley had purchased a dress from while shopping before her disappearance. Then, they found Shirley's car. It was parked in the garage of Canaan's flat in Bristol. It had been badly repainted royal blue and had a new license plate fitted with a registration SLP386S.

John Canaan was still in custody in Lemington Spa for the attack at the dress shop at this point. The police were only able to hold him for 36 hours before laying charges or releasing him. If they started asking him questions about Shirley Banks, the clock would continue to run on the dress shop attack. If they then stopped asking questions about Shirley and went back to the dress shop attack, the clock for Shirley's case would continue to run. And it was already getting tight. There was no way they could start interviewing Canaan about Shirley Banks without running out of time for the dress shop. So they made a decision. John Canaan was charged and granted bail for the dress shop attack.

As soon as Canaan signed his bail papers, he was arrested by Bristol police in relation to Shirley Banks disappearance. So they now had another 36 hours to question him. They had Shirley's car in Canaan's garage. He was a great suspect, but it still wasn't evidence of anything. Shirley still hadn't been located. They needed a confession or further evidence, or they risked Canaan walking. 50 officers were immediately placed on the case. While holding Canaan for that 36 hours, six task force teams searched 15 separate areas of woods and 11 different underwater locations in search of Shirley's body.

The Royal Air Force did aerial searches and a forensics team closely went over Canaan's flat. That weekend, newspapers ran stories of the possible links between Canaan, Shirley Banks and the disappearance of Susie Lampleau. Susie's family felt Canaan match the photo fit of Mr Kipper, who Susie was last seen with. Plus, he seemed to fit the man she was seeing just prior to her disappearance. The man with links to Bristol. So who was John Canaan? He was born in 1954 in the small town of Sutton Coldfield, 10 kilometres northeast of Birmingham Centre. He was good at sports, although his father didn't approve.

His father, an engineer, was stripped and had strong ideas for John's future. Canaan left school at the age of 17, joining the Merchant Navy. He only lasted three months. Canaan's father was the general manager of a prestigious car showroom of British cars, and he got his son a job in used car sales. Canaan earned the nickname Billy Lawyer for his devious ways on the job. Canaan got married and had a child in 1978. They initially lived with his parents as things were tough financially. But Canaan abandoned his family in 1980 for another woman he was seeing.

When this woman left him, he brutally attacked her. His list of prior offenses included robbery, theft, assault with a weapon, fraud and rape. Canaan's arrest record began in 1968 when he indecently assaulted a woman in a phone box. He was just 14 years old. He was placed on probation. Just after Canaan married, there were a string of sex attacks committed in Birmingham. Houses with sales signs were being visited by a man who attacked the woman if they were alone in the house. Although police believe Canaan may have been involved, they had no evidence, and Canaan denied any involvement.

Canaan robbed a petrol station at Knife Point in February 1981, and the following month, before being sentenced for that crime, he robbed and raped a shop assistant in a knitwear shop. He was sentenced to eight years behind bars in Bristol for the rape of the shop assistant, but he only served five. In December 1985, Canaan was sent to London to begin his rehabilitation. This was seven months before Susie disappeared. Canaan was released into a prison hostel on a day release program just outside the gates of the prison at Wormwood Scrubs. Wormwood Scrubs is in the London borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, right where Susie lived, worked and disappeared from. While on day release, Canaan was allowed to work.

He got a job as a porter at a local props hiring company. He was allowed to go to bars, socialise and live his days like a free man. Canaan was released from the day release program entirely just three days before Susie went missing. Police looked into him further and discovered that while Canaan was still living in the prison hostel, he had an affair with a solicitor in Bristol which ended just after Susie's disappearance. Canaan threatened her and her family. Canaan also bragged to a workmate that he had met a pretty girl in a Fulham bar and told another about a special girlfriend in Fulham. He talked often about how women just fell for him. He had this charm about him.

A woman who worked near Susie notified police that she saw a man staring into the window of Susie's real estate agency from across the street. Susie's flatmate recalled how she received unwanted phone calls at home and several bouquets of flowers from someone which she was getting annoyed about. It was now being suggested this man was John Canaan. Canaan was never included in the first police inquiry into Susie Lamplew's disappearance. Sex offenders and prisoners on day release were not targeted for questioning. Susie's parents said, We told them that Susie had met a man from Bristol. We told them about his personality that he made her feel uncomfortable.

They did nothing. But now the possible links between John Canaan and Susie's disappearance were very clear. But as the press ran with it and went into a frenzy, the police could find no solid evidence linking Canaan to Susie. As police near the end of their 36 hour holding time for Shirley Banks disappearance, they had to either charge Canaan or let him go. With the evidence they had, they were able to charge him with the theft of Shirley's motor vehicle. Plus there was the assault with intent to rob from the dress shop in Lemington Spa. This was enough to get Canaan in front of a magistrate who granted police three more days to question him. In relation to the night Shirley disappeared, Canaan told many detailed stories about shops he visited and people he saw.

Police immediately recognized this tactic. He was explaining real situations he had encountered very convincingly. It was convincing because they were true accounts of him purchasing wine or inquiring about buying curtains or seeing a friend. But these events were likely to have occurred on different days. This was a tactic used so the police would believe he was telling the truth. To make his story seem more genuine. But the police could not corroborate his alibi. While Canaan was still in custody, several more witnesses came forward. A woman named Christine from a local pottery shop had been invited by John to his house for dinner the Saturday after Shirley went missing.

She told police she had tried to phone him all week as she had the cancel, but she never got an answer. About 9am on Friday, October 9th, 1987, the morning after Shirley's disappearance, she tried again. This time John answered within one ring and Christine described his behavior as very odd. He didn't remember who she was and he sounded nervous. With one day left to question Canaan, police asked the woman who was attacked at gunpoint at her car in Bristol the night before Shirley's disappearance to attend an identity parade at the station. She agreed. She walked into a room with one-way glass and immediately told the officers it was number three who attacked her. Number three was John Canaan. This new charge of attempted abduction bought police another three days. A taxi driver then came forward. He had seen the location of Canaan's flat in the newspapers.

He said that at 2pm the day after Shirley Banks disappeared, he received a request to pick up a woman from flat two at Foy House, which is where Canaan lived. Only when he arrived and knocked on the door of the flat, which was what taxis did back then, John Canaan answered the door and abruptly said no woman had ordered any taxi. The taxi driver left confused. That same afternoon Canaan asked a neighbour if he could borrow her vacuum cleaner. Another neighbour saw him with a bucket and cloth cleaning his black BMW. Police believe that Shirley Banks was kept hostage in Canaan's flat until sometime in the afternoon the day after she was abducted. So it probably was her that called in sick to her workplace that morning, most likely against her will. Police found a receipt for a dry cleaners in Canaan's flat and when they followed it up, they found it was a raincoat which had been left for cleaning and it had not yet been collected.

The woman working at the dry cleaners said that when the raincoat was dropped off, it had been covered in red mud. Forensic testing confirmed there were blood stains on the coat. At that time there was only limited forensic testing available, so they were only able to confirm the blood group. The blood could have belonged to John Canaan, but it also could have belonged to Shirley Banks. They felt they had enough to charge Canaan with kidnapping Shirley. If there was a chance that Shirley could be alive, police felt their only choice was to go public with a picture of Canaan. With the advice of John Drew, the Bristol Crown Prosecutor at the time, they released a photo to the media. They did this understanding the risk that if the case went to trial, then any identifying evidence of Canaan from that point on would be tainted by the fact that public had been exposed to his photograph.

There would certainly be an argument from Canaan's defence that he may not receive a fair trial, but they took the risk. Headlines are cross-britten red. Have you seen this man? Radio and news reports asked for anyone who knew John Canaan or had anything to do with him in recent months to come forward. Fingerprint experts built a composite of Shirley's prints from various items found around her home. They could then try to place a match to prints found in Canaan's BMW as well as his flat. It was on a single piece of paper found in a wooden chest in John Canaan's flat where they got their match. On the side of the page was Shirley's thumbprint. Shirley touched the piece of paper while being held captive. When Canaan cleaned up afterwards, he put the paperwork away in the chest.

They could now charge Canaan for murder, even though the media release hadn't worked and they were yet to find Shirley. On Easter Sunday the following year, 1988, seven months after Shirley Banks disappeared, her body was found. A woman going to collect moss in the forest stumbled upon her remains just over an hour's drive from Bristol in Somerset. Shirley was found in the forest at Quantock Hills in a wooded wetland area known as Dead Woman's Ditch. Canaan had holidayed in this forest numerous times as a child. Three months later, police were able to link Canaan to the rape of a woman in Reading and the attempt at abduction of another woman in Bristol. Both of these attacks occurred on the same day, a few months after Susie had disappeared. Advancements in DNA technology played a part in linking him to the rape.

And although they could link him to the area of the attempted abduction on the same day as well, there was insufficient evidence to charge him with that attack. So in April 1989, John Canaan stood trial for the murder of Shirley Banks, the rape of the woman in Reading, and the attempted abduction at gunpoint of the woman in Bristol the night before Shirley disappeared. By this time, 150 officers from five different police forces had spent around 140,000 hours on the case. The trial lasted three weeks and the jury deliberated for 10 hours. Canaan was found guilty and sentenced to serve three life sentences for the attacks. It was given a minimum sentence of 35 years. His appeal against his conviction was rejected in 1991.

Despite being given a minimum term, during sentencing, the judge said, you should never again be at liberty outside of prison walls. In the trial, it came out that in 1987, almost a year after Susie's disappearance, and only three days before the abduction and murder of Shirley Banks, John Canaan went to a dating agency in Bristol and made a video. He used the name John Peterson. Well, I think apart from the physical side, again, I think somebody who's pleasant, who's natural, who's relaxed, somebody who's calm, just pleasant, just very nice.

You're worried that they're career orientated. You'll be quite... No, no, no, no, no. Well, as somebody who's career orientated myself, I couldn't blame them for that. No, not at all. As soon as Canaan was sentenced, the Metro police in London arranged an interview with him. He denied any involvement in Susie's disappearance. He even denied ever being in Fulham. He did not have an alibi for the day she disappeared. Police knew Canaan had a type of woman he liked, attractive young professional women.

He was charismatic and good looking. He knew how to entice women with romantic gestures. He perfectly fit the description of Mr. Kipper, the man Susie was seeing with the day she disappeared. He drove a black BMW and he could lie with ease. But they couldn't come up with any solid evidence linking him to Susie Lamplew. When the investigation into Canaan failed to reduce any results, Susie's parents went to the High Court and obtained a ruling to declare Susie deceased. This became official in February 1994. Susie Lamplew was officially declared dead, presumed murdered.

In 1997, the Susie Lamplew Trust played a key role in the passing of the Protection from Harassment Act, which clamped down on crimes involving stalking and allowed for stalkers to be prosecuted and imprisoned. In late 1999, police pushed to reopen the cold case of Susie Lamplew. With advances in forensic testing, they believed there was a chance they could move forward with the investigation. And in the year 2000, the case was officially reopened with Jim Dickie named Senior Investigator. It was codenamed Operation Phoebus. Dickie waded through the vast amount of notes made in the initial investigation and looked into the many different theories that surrounded the case. Everyone from criminologists to psychics had sent their theories to police, but what the case was lacking was hard evidence. After a review, police admitted opportunities were missed due to the sheer volume of information that came in during the investigation, causing the pursuit of a lot of false leads.

They had a number of suspects on their list. One by one, they eliminated every suspect until they got down to the one name they couldn't eliminate, John Canaan. Canaan was re-interviewed twice more about Susie's disappearance. He again denied ever visiting Fulham, but police had proof he had. He also denied having access to a black BMW in 1986, even though he was arrested with one the following year. The new officers on the case began to uncover a vast amount of circumstantial evidence against Canaan. During his time in prison, prior to Susie's disappearance, Canaan was nicknamed Kipper. Daphne Sargent, an ex-girlfriend of Canaan's, came forward and said, As soon as I heard about Susie, I knew it was John. I had all the hallmarks, right down to the champagne. Canaan's own sister told the media that she believed he did it, and implored him to reveal the whereabouts of Susie's body.

Former Detective Chief Inspector Brian Saunders said inquiries showed that he went window shopping for girls. He would spot an attractive girl in an estate agent's office or building society and pursue her. They also questioned him on the license plate he had put on Shirley Banks' mini. He had changed the license plate to one that read SLP386S. They thought SLP could have stood for Susie Lamplu, with the number 86 being the year he killed her. Police felt Canaan was the type of man to play these sort of cat and mouse games. He was extremely manipulative during questioning, yet a knack of turning the questioning back on to interviewing officers and would address officers by their first names. Even though he was serving life, Canaan treated police interviews like he was having a casual chat in the pub. An officer asked him if he realised the significance of the letters of the license plate.

Canaan said, yes. When asked to elaborate, Canaan said, I bought that car off a Bristol businessman for £100. That man is in a lot of trouble. The police officer said, no John, you are in a lot of trouble. To which Canaan said, yes, but that man committed the murders of Shirley Banks, Susie Lamplu and another girl. The officer said, is that man you John? Canaan said, yes. But within two seconds he retracted his statement and denied it. Canaan had to pause the interview as he was overcome with emotion.

It was the first time he had shown any sign of weakness. But police still didn't have the evidence required to charge Canaan for Susie's disappearance. Arian Ackman in 2000 bought new witnesses forward with further circumstantial evidence. A jogger had seen Susie in a car with a man fitting the description of John Canaan. The car was a black or dark coloured BMW. Police identified a car that Canaan had used with another criminal from the prison hostel to commit a crime around the same time of Susie's disappearance. That car was a dark coloured BMW. A woman came forward identifying John Canaan as the man who had appeared at her house in 1986 in Fulham, uninvited, at the time of Susie's disappearance.

The woman's house was for sale and Canaan knocked on the door without an estate agent. He asked to have a look around and although she felt uneasy and suspicious, she let him in. What Canaan didn't know was that the woman's husband was home. When Canaan saw the husband, he acted even more strangely and fled the house. This MO mirrored the string of attacks on women selling their homes in Birmingham, also linked to Canaan. Another witness came forward confirming she had seen a man fitting John Canaan's description, staring into the window of Susie's office, the day before Susie disappeared. Canaan's ex-girlfriend, Gillie Page, came forward and gave details of a conversation she remembered having with Canaan. While driving from Bristol to Birmingham via the M5 motorway, Canaan allegedly confessed to her that he had raped and murdered the estate agent.

While driving in the car past Norton Barracks at Worcestershire, he said, maybe Susie is in there. By the time police received this information, it had been 15 years since Susie went missing. Jim Dickie said Norton Barracks was a completely different place to what it had been in 1986. It had since been sold off to developers and a housing estate had been built. Old buildings had been knocked down or completely redeveloped. If they were going to excavate the area, they would now have to remove people's homes, which they didn't feel they could do. The investigation team did dig up what they could, but by no means could they search the entire area. Prior to the housing estate, the area was isolated Army Barracks, where the SAS trained.

The use of the site by special forces was a closely guarded secret. A former SAS member said the Barracks had a number of cellars and passageways and the whole site was very isolated, adding that it was used for special exercises at least until 1985, the year before Susie disappeared. The areas they could search on the now redeveloped site turned up nothing. They decided to search the area of Dead Woman's Ditch, the forest in Somerset where Shirley Banks' body had been found. Canaan knew the area well, but again they found nothing. A year later they did another search in Somerset, this time in an area called the Somerset Levels, a coastal plain and wetland area which borders the Quantock Hills where Shirley's body had been found.

Police received information that John Canaan frequently visited that area before being sentenced to life in prison. The Royal Air Force flew over the area taking photographs for the police to analyse for other possible spots to search. The Royal Marines helped search waterways and other local areas, but again nothing was found. They came up empty after a second search of the former Norton Army Barracks. With even more advancements in forensics, police began the enormous task of testing the DNA of 800 unidentified bodies and skeletal remains. No match was made. What had happened though is that John Canaan had started talking in prison. Several prison inmates told police of self-confessions by Canaan since his conviction,

while the police accept the need for scepticism over the reliability of self-confessions. Taken together, they were too compelling to ignore. According to one inmate, Canaan confessed to Susie's murder saying, Yes, I've done it, but I'll never find the body. There's no body, no crime. They can't prove a thing. Another inmate told police that after watching a news report from prison, Canaan said they won't find her there. When asked where Susie was, Canaan replied, Do you honestly think I'd be daft enough to be walking around with a fucking spade? She's in a house. The most shocking revelation came when one prisoner asked Canaan why he wouldn't just come clean.

The response he got was, It's not as simple as that. She's not by herself. She's got company. According to prison wardens, Canaan eventually stopped denying his involvement in Susie's disappearance, saying, It's up to them to prove it. They'll never prove it. Police were hoping to get a confession, but it never came. They sent the file against Canaan to the Crown Prosecution Service, or CPS. A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said, We will review what the CPS has said and take a decision within the next fortnight. Mark Dennis, a senior treasury counsel, ruled the circumstantial evidence against John Canaan was insufficient to take to court. In theory, police could ignore the advice and charge Canaan anyway,

but that would likely lead to the Crown Prosecution Service dropping the case before it reached trial. A statement was issued by the Susie Lamplew Trust. The police will be studying advice in detail and will discuss with the family both the advice and the action to be taken. We are satisfied that the police have been doing excellent work and are continuing to do so. We await further developments and whatever happens will continue through the Susie Lamplew Trust with our work to enable other people to live safer lives. Scotland Yard order press conference. Operation Phoebus and the inquiry into the disappearance of Susie Lamplew was suspended, until such time as new evidence emerged.

They assured the family and the public that the case was not closed, just suspended. Prosecutors agreed that Operation Phoebus had done a very thorough reinvestigation of the case. They saw nothing more that could be done that hadn't already been done. If new information came to light, they would be waiting, but they maintained there was insufficient evidence to take to court. Scotland Yard Detective Assistant Commissioner Bill Griffiths admitted it was a matter of great regret that the original inquiry launched in 1986 had missed significant opportunities. He said,

If these had been grasped at the time and may have led us to a prosecution many years ago, but that did not happen. It was revealed that police involved in the original inquiry did not check prisons for records of recently released sex offenders. It was also confirmed that police had failed to act upon information supplied by Susie's parents about the man she was seeing from Bristol just prior to her disappearance. Susie's father Paul said, We are greatly distressed and indeed considerably angered. After all these years, it is still not possible to prosecute the person who both we and the police believe murdered Susie.

We have come to a conclusion that at this point in time, we accept the situation. In November 2002, British police did something very unusual. They held a press conference and named John Canaan as the only suspect in the investigation into Susie Lambleau's killing. They publicly acknowledged the circumstantial evidence against him. It was revealed that Susie may have had a brief romance with Canaan, who then stalked her and took revenge when she dumped him. Information released in the early 2000s revealed that in the immediate lead-up to Susie's disappearance, Canaan often ignored the hostile curfew and cruise the bars of Fulham at night to chat up women

before returning to the hostel drunk and climbing in through an open window. Canaan has denied in police interviews ever visiting Fulham, but his former workmates insist he often bragged about girlfriends he met there. He told colleagues and acquaintances that he liked attractive, professional and fun types. Well-dressed, well-educated, well-spoken women in business suits, particularly navy pleaded skirts. One former colleague told police that Canaan had spoken of one special girlfriend in Fulham. Police strongly believed Canaan was the exciting new man Susie spoke of to her family, but whom they never met, who she went on to say she was having problems with.

Days before Susie disappeared, a young woman working near Canaan's workplace at the props' hire business was approached by a man whom police believed to be Canaan. He said he had seen her through the window and asked her out for dinner. She declined politely. Canaan left, only to return later with several bouquets of flowers. According to his former lovers, this was Canaan's motor-sopper andi. Canaan wrote letters from prison to criminologist and author Christopher Berry D, boasting that chocolates, champagne and roses are ways of saying I love you

and to never have I felt embarrassed about buying them or saying those words. According to police, Canaan had the ability to charm women to a point of near-total control and statements from former girlfriend speak of his passion for motor-racing and how he'd woo them with champagne and red roses before turning nasty and exacting revenge if he was rejected. Remember Susie told her mother that her mystery man from Bristol had taken her motor-racing? The Suffolk strangler Steve Wright, who was jailed in 2006 for the murder of five women who worked as sex workers, was also investigated at one time. It was discovered that he had worked with Susie when she worked as a beautician aboard the luxury ship the QE-2 in the early 80s.

Susie and Wright were acquaintances and regularly met up after working together on the ship, but no evidence was found linking him to Susie's disappearance, and it was chalked up to nothing other than a bizarre coincidence. In 2009, the remains of hospital worker Melanie Hall from Bath were found in a bin bag near the M5 in Bristol 13 years after she went missing from outside a nightclub. Police initially linked Canaan to her disappearance in the late 90s when an informant told investigators that Canaan and fellow inmate Christopher Clark were talking about the perfect abduction in prison. Clark was released soon after, then Melanie Hall disappeared.

The theory is that Clark abducted and murdered Melanie Hall after he was released, and Canaan helped orchestrate it from behind bars. Clark was interviewed but not charged due to a lack of evidence. But one month later, Clark attacked another woman in Bath and was jailed for life. This has never been proven, it was only speculation, and several other arrests were made after Clark in relation to the disappearance of Melanie Hall. The case still remains unsolved though. In August 2010, someone came forward to say they had seen a mound of earth around the time Susie disappeared

at a site previously searched by officers in Worcester. The area is about three miles away from the former Norton Barracks which was searched previously. Scotland Yard officers used ground penetrating radar to comb the site, which they confirmed had been previously searched in connection with the inquiry. This renewed hope 24 years after Susie vanished without a trace. Quietly faded when again nothing was found. The Susie Lamplew Trust went from strength to strength and became a full-time venture for the Lamplews. They still continue to help people avoid becoming victims of aggression

and offer counselling and support to relatives and friends of missing people. In 2010, the charity set up the National Stalking Helpline, which gives advice to thousands of people every year who are victims of stalking. Diana was appointed OBE in 1992 for her work with the Trust. OBE stands for Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire and is a Queen's Honour given to an individual for a major local role in any activity such as business, charity or the public sector. She was also awarded four honorary doctorates for her work

and her import also received the Beacon Prize for Leadership in Personal Safety. Diana wrote many books, training manuals and articles. Diana died in August 2011 having suffered a serious stroke the previous year and also being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. She was 75 years old and died without answers to her daughter's disappearance but believed the right man was behind bars regardless. 30 years on Susie's 85 year old father Paul Lamplew is beginning to lose hope that the case will ever be solved.

He said, I don't have very much hope that I will find out what happened. I miss Susie more now. I think the older I get, I miss her. Susie did know how to live life fully but no one taught her how to be safe. Lead investigator of the re-investigation Jim Dickie believes that John Canaan stalked Susie. He may have had some contact and that is why Susie spoke of the new man with Bristol connections. He may have even taken Susie on a date and they likely spoke on the phone.

It was probable Canaan had viewed other properties with Susie, possibly playing a character who was more well off than he actually was, bringing a bottle of champagne along to share with her on that date. Canaan was wooing her in his usual fashion. Susie was planning to break it off or at least cool it down but John Canaan didn't like rejection. During a meeting Canaan had with his solicitor in 2002, he said,

I may tell all when my mother dies. He will be eligible for parole in six years time, 2023, when he is 65 years old. He can only be released if the parole board rules that he is no longer a serious danger to the public. www.canaan.org